Who Let the Facebook Watchdogs Out?

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Posted on
August 8, 2012

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If you have a Facebook brand page, be aware; you could receive a slap on the wrist for comments deemed inappropriate on your page.

Recently, the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) decided that comments, made by fans of the Smirnoff page, are considered ‘ads’, meaning they must comply with industry codes and laws. Failure to remove comments that do not comply with industry self-regulatory codes and consumer protection laws may result in penalties for brand pages, who are considered responsible for user-generated content.

John Swinson, a media lawyer and partner at law firm King & Wood Mallesons, has warned his clients that the same standards applied to mainstream media (radio, TV and billboards) might need to be adhered to on Facebook brand pages. Offensive (i.e. Racist, sexist) or misleading content posted by page fans could see your brand in a great deal of trouble; both socially and legally. This means you, as a brand, need to be hyper vigilant in monitoring your page to ensure no one is biting into it and chewing with their mouth open in front of your other fans.

Despite the enforcement of the ASB’s regulations upon the ‘wrong’ thing, I see this issue as one big grey area. Facebook is not a one-way marketing street; the standards applicable to TV, radio and billboards are going to be an extremely difficult fit. If your community comments can now be seen as ‘ads’ and treated accordingly, what lies ahead for your brand page in terms of your strategy, content and man hours?

What is currently in place for your Facebook brand page to monitor incorrect/offensive content posted by fans?

UPDATE: http://www.thinktanksocial.com.au/2012/08/the-advertising-big-brother-clamps-down/

  • http://twitter.com/Jonovanmidde Jono Vanmidde

    Thanks for the good article Steph, Community management for brands Facebook pages is even more important now! Will this change the way that you or anyone else at ThinkTank go about managing Facebook pages?

  • http://twitter.com/StephieJo Steph Grapsas

    Hi Jono! Thanks for the comment – great question.

    Yes, this will definitely see us changing the way we manage Facebook pages for clients. Internally, this is something we will be brainstorming around – we will share our ideas and outcomes in a follow-up blog post.

    Community managers are going to have to
    be ON IT. This could mean cutting out a lot of user content. Depending on the brand’s tone of voice, this could also
    mean changing strategy in the interest of being proactive rather than
    reactive. Difficult to say how fans will respond to this – depends on
    the individual and the brand!

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